The question of why I eat meat is one I am asked a LOT by my vegetarian and vegan friends. “If you love animals so much, why do you eat them?” is normally how it is phrased.
Firstly. I think that the term ‘I love animals’ can be taken literally, I like animals a lot, but in my case I can’t describe that as ‘love’. My definition of love is that you value [them/it] more highly than yourself. Sure, if I had to rank myself against certain species of animals (Red Pandas anybody??) I’d probably lose out. But against individual animals? No way. If I had the choice between giving life-saving medicine to a child or to a kitten I would give it to the child without a second thought, and I sincerely hope that if you are reading this you can empathise with that position.
That answers the ‘if you love animals so much’ part, now on to the ‘why do I eat them’ part:
Seeing Practice 